Although the AI seems to fly through the tech tree now, which I viewed as more of a challenge to keep up, the combat AI has seen no improvement whatsoever so it really doesn't matter (even though some have mentioned they might send a plane your way on occasion now).
In my latest game the leader, Russia, had a vast empire and was two eras ahead of me, even with some Cossack/AT Troop armies running around (I had musketmen at best). I sailed over with some frigates (they should have had battleships), pounded their costal cities w/o any opposition for 10-15 turns until the walls fell and took the city. They did send over those Cossack armies, but they did *nothing*. They ran around looking at the land they lost as I shot at them with my frigates. They could have easily re-taken the city with one or two attacks, but never even tried. I have no idea what this combat AI is doing.
Now, centuries later from that first war with plenty of time to rebuild, Russia has a combat strength of 25 to my 1,500+ and is still plopping down new wonders in front of my armies as I steamroll. Sigh.
I don't want to make this another "complain about the AI thread", so has anyone tried any recent modifications or changes to unit costs to help? My thoughts before starting my next game:
In my latest game the leader, Russia, had a vast empire and was two eras ahead of me, even with some Cossack/AT Troop armies running around (I had musketmen at best). I sailed over with some frigates (they should have had battleships), pounded their costal cities w/o any opposition for 10-15 turns until the walls fell and took the city. They did send over those Cossack armies, but they did *nothing*. They ran around looking at the land they lost as I shot at them with my frigates. They could have easily re-taken the city with one or two attacks, but never even tried. I have no idea what this combat AI is doing.
Now, centuries later from that first war with plenty of time to rebuild, Russia has a combat strength of 25 to my 1,500+ and is still plopping down new wonders in front of my armies as I steamroll. Sigh.
I don't want to make this another "complain about the AI thread", so has anyone tried any recent modifications or changes to unit costs to help? My thoughts before starting my next game:
- If we use simple mods to make all units much cheaper (something like 50% or 75% cheaper), will the AI build more of them? I figure if they have a bunch they'll still be some kind of a challenge?
- Slowing down the tech pace - multiple threads on this - I wonder if everything slows down a bit they'll have more time to focus on building units for that era rather than just jumping to the next round of district buildings?
- Something else? We need a more mature version of AI+, really, that just teaches the AI that they need to maintain an army as an absolute priority and USE THE UNITS against their enemies when under attack.